


My Greatest Irony

by KitKatPurrpurr



Category: Journey (Video Game 2012)
Genre: Cannibalism, Gen, OC, god-complex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 01:40:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2048430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitKatPurrpurr/pseuds/KitKatPurrpurr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A half-human, half-war machine learns she isn't who she thinks she is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Greatest Irony

                I’m no one’s favorite person. I’m not even considered a person by many at all, though that may have to do with the fact I’m not wholly human anyway. The stone wings and tail will tell you that. Disconnected yet fully attached to me, I have complete control over what they do. No human can do that. I’ve been called monster, demon, heathen, vile, all sorts of things you wouldn’t normally call someone else unless you really, truly feared them. And I am feared. I am feared because I am Death. You come to me looking for an answer to a greater truth. I will give you your truth. Are you worthy enough to live?

                No one has ever been worthy. Every soul that has dared to cower before me and beg for forgiveness has been washed of their sins in the crimson nectar that flows from their blackened hearts. I cannot pity them. They know full well that no one faces Death and lives, and yet they still trudge into the belly of Hell, hoping and praying that perhaps a miracle can save them.

                But nothing ever does. Because miracles don’t happen to those who are not worthy of receiving them.

……

                A distant scuffling sound roused me from my nap. Flicking my ears towards the sound, I licked my lips and yawned, trying to clear the drowsiness from my head. The shuffling appeared to come from a few corridors over, so I stumbled down from my ledge and took off into the air, keeping to the shadows. The cool sand glowed blue in the patches of sunlight that peeked in through the cracks in the ceiling, and I expertly dodged them as I flew. The low rumble from a war machine echoed throughout the ruins. A few grains of sand floated into the air and resettled. It didn’t sound as if the machine was nearby, indicating that these willing sacrifices were mine for the taking. I didn’t like sharing my meals with the other creatures of the tunnels, especially since I was starving for a good meal, and this was my first opportunity in quite some time.

                As I neared my prey, I floated up onto a cracked ledge and squatted down, folding my wings. I wanted to see who these poor souls were before I had to deliver the bad news. One had a worn robe and seemed a bit older…made sense for him to be here. But the other was young and inexperienced. She kept laughing and talking loudly while the elder one continued to shush her. What a fool. Both of them, really.

                “Once we make it through these tunnels then it will be an easy journey from here on out. So keep quiet until we’re through!” The man held the girl’s hand fast as he whispered to her. “There’s a monster in here, and she eats people, which is why you need to be quiet so she doesn’t hear you!!”

                The girl opened her mouth to protest when I leapt forward and dove across one of the beams of light. The young girl gasped as my shadow passed over them, and the two of them shrunk back. I landed on a nearby pillar, once again cloaked by the darkness.

                “D-did you see that??” The young girl clamored. The man quickly put his hand over her mouth to quiet her, and I once again flew into the beam of light. This time, however, I growled and hovered in midair, casting a long shadow across the ground and silhouetting myself above them.

                “Damnit! This is why you should have shut up when I told you to!” The older man grabbed the girl’s robe and turned to run.

                =GgggrrrrroooOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!= I roared at them and they froze. =Have some respect for Death!!= The two of them turned around and got down low on the ground as I swooped down and stood in front of them. Taking slow strides, I stepped closer to them and reveled in seeing them plant their faces into the ground, shaking. =What’s the matter? Feeling unworthy of passage through these halls? Scared I’ll take your lives, your undeserving, pathetic little lives?= The older one looked up at me and shouted through his wails.

                “P-please don’t eat us!! We just want to go to the tower!! W-we know people call you a monster, but you’re just as normal as the rest of us, I swear!! Let us go!!” His nose was oozing mucus and he couldn’t even open his eyes. What a weak excuse for a human being. No way should he be allowed through. My eyes glanced over at the young girl and I leaned down to her. Removing her hood, I tossed it to the side and saw her long brown hair covering her face as she wept.

                “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!!!” All she could do was repeatedly stammer out an apology. On the one hand I think she was apologizing to the old man for getting them into this situation, but secretly I knew she was apologizing to me. She obviously knew she wasn’t going home again, but then again it was her fault for coming here in the first place. But….I know my duty to better the human race. And that is to weed out anyone unfit to seek transcendence beyond the Underground and past the tower. Sorry poor girl, but you’re too stupid to be living.

                I grasped the girl’s hair in my hand and pulled up, lifting her from the ground as she screamed and kicked out at me. Normally her weight wouldn’t prove any sort of difficulty to me, but I was weaker and had to exert myself more than I initially anticipated.

                =Calm down!! This is for your benefit, you know!!= Claws poised, I slashed her chest and tore open not only her robe but her flesh as well, exposing her ribcage while her nourishing blood spilled out onto the sand. She screamed to the high heavens she would never see and sobbed, helpless as I kept hold of her hair. Glancing down at the old man, I saw him pulling out his knife, and I knew he intended to stab my foot.

                =How DARE you disrespect me! How DARE you!!= I roared at him. Using the girl as a mace of sorts, I whipped her around and bludgeoned the old man. The young girl flailed around as her bones began to crack, and the man collapsed to the ground in a pool of his own blood. He was still conscious, but I had had enough of his insolence. I threw the girl to the ground and flexed my arm a few times to shake it out before flying up several feet and dropping as dead weight, feet first, onto the man’s head. His skull shattered, bone fragments flying into the air as debris. Blood splattered the ground and my legs, and the mushy gray matter squished underfoot in a sickeningly sweet way.

                The girl was frozen in place, agape at what she had witnessed. I turned to face her and she quaked against the ground. I stepped over to her, making my way slowly and maintaining eye contact as I approached. The sand underneath her turned tacky as the sweat rolled off her body and the blood from her earlier wound drained lazily. Her throat began to tighten. Standing over her legs, I looked down at the young girl, narrowing my eyes.

                =Why are you here?= This was both a question I was required to ask and was curious about. I rarely saw youth passing through these tunnels, and when I did it was out of the self-hatred they had for themselves. But a happy young girl? A rarity in and of itself. The girl choked a bit to clear her throat and stared bravely up at me.

                “W-w-we were just t-trying to get to th-the mountain.” I convulsed and almost keeled over, the hilarity hit me so hard.

                =You?! The mountain??? Really??= I couldn’t hold back the wild cackle that erupted from my chest. =You have got to be kidding me!!= I put my hand to my mask and felt my head start to ring. My cheeks were slimy from the tears and slid against the stone of my mask in a rather uncomfortable way, but the laughter wouldn’t stop. Hunching over, I managed to compose myself enough to speak again, taking in deep breaths, one after the other, one after the other. My eyes found the girl once more.

                I leaned down and picked her up by her tawny locks again, tightening my hand around the strands and lifting her off the ground, more slowly than before. Cocking my head at her, I softened my gaze. She sniffled and shook, mucus draining from her nose; she avoided my eyes. The blood dripping made a soft uneven _pat pat_ in the sand below her.

=Don’t be afraid. You simply made a mistake. I’m sorry it has to come to this, but let’s be honest: if you were deserving of life, you would have known better than to pass through here.= I stroked her cheek and she glanced back at me, her reddened eyes glazed over with tears. =I’ll make it quick, I promise.=

                Moving her throat closer to my mouth, I lifted my mask and widened my jaws, sinking my teeth into her soft flesh. In a panic, she tried to scream, only causing more blood to squirt into my mouth as she gurgled. I closed my eyes, letting the sweet taste surround my tongue and overwhelm my senses. It had been so long since I had been able to eat, seeing as fewer and fewer sacrifices made their way into my home. I had feared I wouldn’t have been able to even face these two. This was a close call.

                The girl went limp in my mouth and her blood ceased to flow. Lowering her to the ground, I placed her on the sand and turned back around, remembering the old man. He was gaunt and didn’t seem particularly well in his death, so I decided he would be best left for the other war machines. My best option was to head back to the place I slept in, bringing the girl with me as an emergency snack.

……

                Three weeks had passed since I finished off the last of the young girl. I kept track of every day, etching a mark in the crack of a wall I called home. I barely had the strength to keep my wings magnetized to my body, leaving me dependent on my cunning if I had to hunt. My clothing was loose around waist and my fingers grew bonier every day. My stone helmet wouldn’t stay on my head right, so I kept it near me instead of wearing it. I had clutched the girl’s femur, gnawing on it sporadically for days on end, whenever I slept, licking up whatever bone marrow I could whittle out with my tongue. I found that my home was colder and colder every night and day that passed. Even the slightest breeze sunk into my bones and froze me from within.

                After a few days I heard the distant scuffling of visitors, but when I lifted myself up to jump down, my leg refused to move, catching on part of the stone wall, and causing me to fall out of my crevice. I scrambled for a grip into the walls, but my nails simply chipped off against the rough stone. My head hit part of a dead war machine once I hit the ground, and my vision went black as the shooting pain echoed through my skull.

                The glowing holes in the ceilings danced around my vision while I tried to sit up. I couldn’t hold my head steady and had to drop it back down onto the stone, grimacing at the fresh pain. I pulled my shaky hand from my side and lifted it to my head, feeling around where it had hit. My fingertips met both sticky and dried blood caked on my hair, and I sighed, going a bit limp. I couldn’t move from my spot. Patches of red and blue dotted the ceiling, though when I blinked they became orange and green. Opening my mouth, I licked my cracked lips, closing my eyes until they were only open a sliver. The energy left my limbs and I watched as hazy darkness overtook the glowing shapes.

                My heart snapped. I needed to be mobile. There were people passing through Hell as if it were a cakewalk! I had to be there to weed out the undeserving!! I opened my eyes wide and clenched with my gut as hard as I could to pull my weak, pathetic, mortal body from the ground. Sitting up slowly, I snarled, trying to not wince at the pain. _Goddamn I am NEEDED!! I MUST be strong!! For the good of everyone!! It’s my duty!!_

                A sob erupted from my shriveled gut as I almost got myself perpendicular to the ground. I moved my hands back to support my frame, but my right hand slipped back and I lost my balance, causing me to fall back. I gasped and my eyes widened, my head slamming back onto the stone carcass.

                My whole body tingled. I thought my insides were spilling out of my skin, as if someone had skinned me in half. No more tears fell from my eyes. Blackness swirled around me. And then suddenly, my body disappeared. The pain was gone. My chest began to evaporate, and the blackness grew from my feet to my torso, then slowly up to my neck, overtaking my head until I too could no longer feel myself.

                _Am I not worthy?_


End file.
